


Drained Of Blood, The Heart Is White

by roswyrm



Series: Colour Wheels [1]
Category: Rusty Quill Gaming (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Speculation, Spoilers (kinda?) for s3, everyone is there but with the least amount of lines possible except for zolf, minor zolf/hamid but like. only bc i cant control myself.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-07
Updated: 2019-05-07
Packaged: 2020-03-01 02:48:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,155
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18791455
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/roswyrm/pseuds/roswyrm
Summary: "Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied with definite form, can speak to the soul in a thousand different ways."—Oscar Wilde





	Drained Of Blood, The Heart Is White

**Author's Note:**

> soulmates au but Not Technically. basically, quick rundown, everyone can see certain colours (or colour) but everything else is in black and white. if u touch someone, you can share colours! the more Meaningful the contact is, the longer you can see the other person's colour for. [i... may have found this in a destiel fic from years and years and years ago that i absolutely adored, but i don't know where that fic went and also im not going to rec anyone spn in the year of our lord 2k19.] also, mind the content warnings, this does get sad. Working Title: _u know i DO have things to be doing_

Zolf’s world is in shades of brown. Absolutely useless, thanks. It means that in enough light, he can tell the difference between chunks of coal and chunks of dirt, but he’d really rather he could see _blue_ without grabbing tight to his mother’s hand. She doesn’t let him do it often, so when she does, he makes sure to look out to the sea until the colour fades from his vision again.

—————

The crew on his first ship can mostly see blue, but Zolf doesn’t want to cause too much trouble. He keeps his hands to himself and lets Jonah tell him what colour his clothes are. Jonah met someone who completes his colour wheel, and he makes sure to grin like a lovestruck idiot every time he smiles out at the dark blue waves. Zolf glares at those same grey waves and wishes to meet someone lucky enough to have the colour blue and loony enough to want to share it with him.

—————

The crew on his second ship are much more difficult to annoy. Zolf can damn near always see the sea’s myriad of shades because everyone on the crew is pretty touchy. Zhi claps him on the back and the captain’s bandana turns _orange._ Beck ruffles his hair and the world lights up with _purple._ Kirsi fits him for a prosthetic and Zolf can see _red_ pulsing angrily beneath tanned skin. Zolf grins when they marvel at all the different shades of brown the boat beneath them holds.

—————

Inland, everything is in shades of grey and brown anyway. The paper is in greyscale no matter who Zolf’s bumped into walking into his tiny apartment. There’s a jar of seawater from his home coast, and he remembers Jonah telling him that the jar itself was tinted blue. Maybe if Zolf stares at it for long enough, he’ll be able to get over his own damn biology and see it.

—————

The halfling’s skin is golden-brown, and the first thing Zolf thinks when he sees him is _what on earth is he doing?_ The second thing is _damn, glad I can see him in colour._ He can’t see what colour the liquid spouting from the halfling’s sleeves is, but based on the shouting, it’s probably red. The last man he Stabilised must have been able to see purple because Zolf can see the colour of the halfling’s suit. Purple and something else, but Zolf hasn’t the faintest idea what.

The halfling introduces himself as Hamid, after a moment of staring. “Sorry,” he stammers, “I just– your eyes are _very_ green.”

Zolf snorts instead of stammering over himself like an idiot. “Yours are brown,” he says because he’s got to respond to that _somehow._ Hamid smiles at him, and _oh,_ that’s going to be an issue, isn’t it?

—————

Sasha is dying, or dead, and as soon as Zolf touches her to heal her, her wounds snap from grey to grotesque crimson. He almost recoils, but he’s seen blood before, and he’ll see blood later. Zolf is a _cleric,_ he can deal with blood when it’s red, too. Cure Light Wounds glows black against her skin and the blood stays red as she groans, clutches at him with her gloved hand, and whines about being in terrible pain. He doesn’t doubt it.

—————

Hamid can see green _and blue,_ it turns out, because when Zolf is helping him start up the fire, their fingers brush, and when he stares out at the coast later, endless blue meets him.

—————

Bertie’s armour is gold, and Zolf knows this because Sasha slumps into his shoulder while they’re riding in the carriage and suddenly everything is gilded. Suddenly Bertie’s usual shining grey is _shimmering gold,_ and Zolf doesn’t stop himself from saying, “Oh, God, you’re even worse in colour.”

—————

Poseidon is blue and green and brackish all at once without the aspects ever overlapping. 

—————

Zolf’s legs are transparent, no colour of their own, and Zolf would love black and white vision so he doesn’t have to see the brown of the streets reflected in his legs.

—————

Hamid hugs him tightly, crying quietly into his chest, and Zolf awkwardly tries to pat at the back of Hamid’s head. The sign in the brewery’s window is lettered in blue.

—————

Someone knocks at his door. Not his door, actually, Hamid’s, because Zolf doesn’t know if he has enough for the rent on his place. Zolf knows it’s probably creepy, or weird, or just kind of a dick move, to move into someone else’s apartment without asking them, but he’s pretty sure Hamid wouldn’t mind. He hopes Hamid wouldn’t mind. 

Damn near nothing in Hamid’s place is brown. It’s all purples (according to Bertie, ridiculing the armchair Wilde was lounging in) and silvers (according to Sasha, proudly showing off one of the many shiny trinkets on Hamid’s mantle that she’d slipped into her pocket) and blues and greens. Nothing simple like brown décor in Hamid’s household. It’s nice. 

Someone knocks at Hamid’s door, and Zolf figures he ought to answer it in case it’s an eviction notice. “Hello,” says someone he doesn’t recognise. They reach out to touch him, but Zolf takes a step back.

“What do you want?” Zolf asks instead. They frown. There’s something odd about them, but Zolf doesn’t know what. They take a step forward, into the apartment, and Zolf is immediately on guard. “No, hang on, _what do you want?”_ They lunge. Zolf scrambles back, crashing into the armchair Wilde was lounging in the first time they met, and the person grabs him by the throat.

They’re in complete greyscale.

The person.

That’s what’s wrong with them.

And Zolf knows this because as soon as they touch him, everything else is in full colour. Zolf can see the artwork on the wall in different shades of green and gold, the wallpaper’s pastel blue damask, the armchair’s dark purple. Zolf kicks the Greyscaled Thing in the stomach, and they collapse inwards without losing any breath. As soon as they stop touching him, the colours vanish. Whatever the hell this thing is, it’s not a person.

—————

Colour starts creeping in.

Whatever the hell that thing was, there’s more of them, and Zolf thinks he’s turning into one. The sign in a shop window is orange. The sparse grass is yellowish. 

The Thames is brownish grey, and Zolf wishes it were blue as he walks into it.

—————

Someone saved him from himself. Zolf is grateful. Now, he can help.

There are so many colours in the world, and Zolf needs to help share them with everyone.

—————

The Orc in front of him has dark brown skin and bright pink armour.

—————

The blood coating his throat and his stomach and his chest is red.

—————

The Halfling crying and clutching at his face has golden brown skin and brassy scales coating his cheekbones. His eyes are brown.

Damn.

Zolf’s glad he can see him in colour.

**Author's Note:**

> ITS FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE


End file.
